


Hard Times to Hide

by CrystalHopeDragon



Series: Days with Danny [6]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny takes a beating once in a while, Gen, Reveal Fic, my first one!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 07:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6744541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHopeDragon/pseuds/CrystalHopeDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lancer stays late at school and discovers he's not alone in the building. But what is a teacher to do when he finds a bleeding student trying to patch himself up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hard Times to Hide

There are moments in life that make one stop, take a big step back, and look around at where they are in the world and what they are doing with their life. Lancer would be having one of those moments right now if he wasn't too concerned to do it currently. He would do it later, after he had assisted in patching up the gaping wound in his student's side.

"A Brave New World, Daniel! What happened?" Lancer asks as he runs across the room to grab the needle and thread from his student to help continue the previously uneven stitches. The boys hands were shaking.

"I -uh- tripped?" He tried throwing out. Lancer gave him a disbelieving glance before continuing the emergency aid (if he didn't he was sure the boy would bleed out). 

Lancer had heard many excuses from Daniel over the last year. Some were punished, but the more it happened the quicker he realized it was a waste of time. Daniel would do what Daniel wished with or without repercussions: hopefully the without option left him more time to do his homework. So far it had only given him time to come up with more excuses. Everything ranging from the 'ghost dog ate his homework' to loosing it in a lab explosion (which, after meeting his parents, might not always be false), and that was just lost assignments. Bladder conditions and forgotten books for leaving class early or missing shoes and traffic problems for why he was late (the later being completely unbelievable as nothing stopped a driving Fenton; everyone in town feared Jack's driving specifically). This however -even more so then the gorilla rampage or the missing shoes- was his flimsiest excuse ever. Maybe he was just out of ideas for this one, or he was so dizzy from the blood loss that he couldn't think. Lancer really hoped it wasn't the latter. 

"Try again, Daniel. I know you can do better than that." He said as he finished the largest gash, and started patching the small cuts that littered the boys skin. Danny was still having trouble speaking, presumably from a lack of anything logical to say. Right as Lancer finished patching his left arm (two small cuts and one nasty bruise) Tucker and Sam bolted in the door with a terrified, "Danny!" Leaving both their lips. They got inside and froze.

"Ah, perfect timing. Would you two care to explain what he could have possibly done to get in this condition?"

"Um, lab accident?" Tucker supplied helpfully after a moment of pause.

"I doubt our school had the equipment necessary to cause this kind of a wound readily available." Lancer replied dryly, moving onto the right arm.

"We brought our own equipment, and it didn't end well?" Sam tried to follow up.

"And that equipment would be where? And why would he be in here, alone? Even if you were trying to hide this, at least one of you would be packing a first aid kit."

"We have a small one." Tucker mumbled, showing his own needle and tread.

"That's surely not what you both left Daniel bleeding out to get, now is it?"

Neither looked comfortable answering.

"A ghost fight. Technus had sharper gadgets today." Danny responded with a sign.

Lancer's eyes widened as Sam and Tucker whirled towards their friend. "Danny-" they both started, echoing their entrance from earlier.

"Guys, you really got an excuse for this? I've got little else to explain it." Danny replied with a helpless shrug.

"Especially when this town has next to no crime rate." Lancer responded offhandedly, trying to connect the damage to a ghost. It...made sense. In a terrifying sort of way. The boy had never been seen at a ghost fight, but from the scars Lancer saw on his body (few and far between, but there nonetheless) this was far from his first gambit from it. If he had been there the whole time, why was he never seen? Even Ms. Manson and Mr. Foley were seen fighting a few times (it had garnered them a bit of respect from their peers) but Mr. Fenton was well known for a fear of ghosts, hiding whenever the action was present. Where in The Hunger Games had he been fighting at that could keep him out of the limelight but so close to the front lines that he received these injuries?

That was when Lancer noticed the blood. There was a trail, starting at the window (not broke, mind you) that ended in red but started...green. The mesh in the middle was smooth, almost as if there was no difference at all.

"Daniel, I'm not sure how else to ask. Why is your blood green?" Lancer said with a motion of his head to the start of the blood trail. Danny glanced over and cursed. 

Lancer heard him mutter something along the lines of, "Now we really have no excuse." But was a bit more distracted by the blood that looked more like his few exposures to ectoplasm than he was comfortable with. Of course he had seen it before. Not only did he live in Amity Park but he was...*cough*...friends with a ghost. Things happen, he was bound to be exposed to it eventually. Still the idea that it came from one of his, seemingly fully HUMAN students was startling. 

"Well, it all started with a lab accident." Danny said with a bright smile, almost as if he was getting ready for one of his usual excuses. "Except this time, my luck ran out halfway."

"How so?" Lancer asked, still patching the arm. Sam and Tucker had moved in to inspect his work and check Danny's legs for damage. 

"As in when it went boom, I only half died. My luck was partially intact." This made Lancer look up, and finally let go. He looked at his student, really looked at him. Half dead. He didn't say near death experience, he said half died. How do you half die? You can't be alive and dead at the same time, can you? 

It seems Daniel wasn't expecting a response, as he simply showed his answer to any questions instead. With Sam and Tucker at his side he let two rings of light flow over him, leaving behind...Danny Phantom. Lancer wanted to smack himself. He taught English, how could he miss such a simple word play? Fenton-Phantom, really? Well, hindsight was 20-20. 

"Well, this explains your habitual tardiness. As well as the absentees, missing homework, and random escapes." Lancer finally answered, the shock still thoroughly present. He was the adult in the room though, and he needed to act like one. "Something you will no longer get punished for, as long as you can provide me with an explanation of what happened later." He responded, much to the three student's surprise and delight. "If you need to make up any assignments for any class I'll try to help. I'll need to come up with some believable circumstances for the others though. Also, I do have my associates in nursing. It's not much, but if you ever get in this condition again, ASK FOR HELP!" He said severely, glancing at the sealed wound on his side pointedly. Thinking back though, he now knew why his students had aced CPR. Particularly Danny, when he had been doing subpar in most other classes.

"So...you're going to help? And not blab this to the whole world?" Tucker asked hopefully, speaking for all of them. Danny reverted back as he spoke.

"Of course not, I'm not looking to cause you more trouble. Do your parents even know though?" Danny grimaced.

"Not yet. Still deciding when or how is best to tell the worlds leading experts on ghosts that they missed the fact their son was one." Danny said with a bit of bitterness, but an even more obvious tone of guilt. 

"I'm sure they will be fine, Daniel. For now, I came in here for these." Lancer responded as he wiped his hands on the wet rag Tucker had been carrying (and ignoring the rest of the mess for a moment) before heading over to the desk and pulling out some ungraded papers. "And I'm sure you have elsewhere to be. Get some rest. We can worry about the details after you have healed a bit." They all looked grateful as they left, Sam seeming to fully support Danny's weight on her own as they walked. Lancer waited until they were out of view to sigh, put the papers away and start to clean up the forgotten mess. 

His mind would be too focused to grade anyway, so he might as well be productive. It was time for that postponed existential crisis.


End file.
